The Goncourt for highschool college students, a prize like no different | EUROtoday
Get real time updates directly on you device, subscribe now.
“CThe award modified my life. » When we discuss with Sorj Chalandon concerning the Goncourt prize for highschool college students, which he gained in 2013 for The Fourth Wallhe hides neither his emotion nor his gratitude. When he realized that his novel had been chosen by the highschool college students who kind the jury, he was sitting on a bench in a sq.. He factors out that it was raining, which coated up the tears streaming down his face. “I known as them and advised them what I all the time say: this prize is pure crystal, with out the slightest roughness. »
The phrase “pure” additionally comes up within the mouth of Estelle Flavet, director of cultural motion at Fnac, who organizes the prize, notably providing the books to all highschool college students and organizing the authors’ tour, in partnership with the ministry. of National Education and in settlement with the Académie Goncourt. “The price is pure, spontaneous, surprising. Something powerful is happening around him, he generates powerful emotions,” says the girl who has managed the group of the Goncourt prize for highschool college students for a dozen years.
Launched in 1988 by a literature trainer and a bookseller from Fnac in Rennes, it operates in line with a easy precept: 2,000 highschool college students from throughout France are invited to learn the choice and select their favourite. Awarded, the 12 months of its launch, to Erik Orsenna for The Colonial Exhibition (Seuil), it has since rewarded a mess of nice names in French literature, comparable to Laurent Gaudé, Philippe Claudel, Catherine Cusset, Delphine de Vigan…
The explosion Gaël Faye
“The Goncourt prize for high school students quickly attracted people and quickly gained momentum, but it was in 2016, when young people rewarded Gaël Faye, that it took on its full scope,” explains Estelle Flavet. The gross sales of Gaël Faye, who revealed his first novel, Small Countryon the Rwandan genocide, had been stratospheric after his coronation, the passion of younger folks bordering on activism: “ Small Country appealed for its literary quality, of course, but also for its societal aspect, continued Estelle Flavet. Since then, this type of subject is more present in the desire of young people, they want to experience this prize as a commitment. »
Sorj Chalandon remembers: “ The Fourth Wall is a very harsh book, dedicated to the massacre of Sabra and Chatila. During a meeting with the young people, I explained to them that I had been one of the first to enter the camps, where the massacres had not even ended yet. I told them that everything was dead: men, women, children, babies, dogs and cats. I told them that I had never felt so alone in my life. During the questions, a young man stood up and said to me this sentence which accompanies me all the time: “You were not alone, we were with you in the camps.” »
Seduction operation
Tell the novelists that you need to make all of the dates. Young folks hate it once we do not journey.Sorj Chalandon
The Goncourt prize for highschool college students is awarded every year on the finish of November, on the finish of a marathon led by the authors in ten cities in France, amongst courses of highschool college students chosen to vote (the prize invitations common excessive colleges , professionals and BTS). “If, in your article, you give advice to novelists, tell them that you have to make all the dates,” warned Sorj Chalandon. Young folks hate it once we do not journey: if we do not, they will not learn. But above all you need to go there to listen to their questions, that are not like another. They are actual, curious, trustworthy. They ask questions that we preserve with us when writing our subsequent novels. »
“For several years, with the rise in prices, all authors have been moving,” continues Estelle Flavet. These are very robust moments, the authors kind bonds of friendship that they’d not have at different occasions, at back-to-school festivals. As for younger folks, they’re demanding, fiery. It is a college for writers who face them. »
A significant subject
To Discover
Kangaroo of the day
Answer
Aware of the problems, anxious to seduce this intractable younger viewers, the candidates for the Goncourt prize for highschool college students know that they’ve the potential for acquiring a prize totally different from the others, which is neither focused on tendencies, nor in influences, nor in publishing homes, however merely to the impact produced by studying and to the charisma of those that write.
With, because of this, the chance to without end change his future as a author: “The Goncourt effect of high school students is a rejuvenation of the readership, which suddenly loses all its white hair. Some young people who voted for The Fourth Wallor who read it after the price has followed me faithfully for more than ten years. The stakes are high,” concludes Sorj Chalandon. So, who, among the many 5 finalists – Olivier Norek, Sandrine Collette, Abdellah Taïa… – (out of 14 authors competing this 12 months) will win this 12 months? Response on Thursday, at noon, on the finish of the ultimate deliberation of the highschool college students, which is able to happen in Rennes, the place all of it started…
https://www.lepoint.fr/livres/le-goncourt-des-lyceens-un-prix-pas-comme-les-autres-26-11-2024-2576299_37.php